This rather bleak scene is from my last history ride of 2007. I was reminded of it when riding home from work today, listening to “Demon of the Waters: The true story of the mutiny of the whaleship Globe,” by Gregory Gibson (2003).

I started on the book last week. Then I ran into a young man I’ve known since his T-Ball days, who said he had just returned from spending 6 months on the sailing ship, HMS Bounty. A story with photos is here.

He explained how he was given the opportunity and had a week to get ready and leave. Not everyone in his life appreciated his going away at the time, but I was glad he took the opportunity. I can’t imagine someone in his position passing up something like that.

There is hardly any chance I’ll be able to go on such a voyage myself, but just the same it caused me to pay extra close attention to the story in the book — to the duties of the crew, their equipment, and the spatial arrangement of everything on a whaling ship.

I was listening to the part explaining how the first week for new hands was spent in overcoming seasickness, when the author quoted one of the crew as saying the episode “capped the climax of…”

Well, I don’t remember exactly of what. But that phrase, “capped the climax,” was one I had heard more than once before. It must have been in fairly common use at the time, because that’s the exact phrase that was said to have led to the naming of Climax Prairie in Kalamazoo County. I wrote about it here. The naming of the prairie took place near the location where I took the above photo.

I’ve heard the phrase in a few other places that date to the same period in American history, but this is the first time I captured a use of it in enough detail to explain where I found it. Unfortunately I can’t give the page number, because I was listening to the audio version.

googlemap

Here’s a map showing where the site was in relation to the village of Climax, which got its start sooner after.